


Twice, a Brother

by PolyphonicColours



Category: Naruto, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: (because no shinobi lives without some kind of damage), (that's Itachi's), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Crossover, Dabi is Todoroki Touya, Gen, Hero Dabi (My Hero Academia), Protective Uchiha Itachi, Reincarnation, The end is the beginning and vice versa, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor's Bad Parenting, Uchiha Itachi as Todoroki Touya, or he will be, some mental instability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:46:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25310341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PolyphonicColours/pseuds/PolyphonicColours
Summary: Itachi dies with Sasuke’s blurry face being the last thing he sees, and comes back to life with blue fire surrounding him.(Or: The one where Uchiha Itachi is reborn as Todoroki Touya and decides to become a #1 Hero in order to protect his younger brother.)
Relationships: Uchiha Itachi & Todoroki Shouto, Uchiha Itachi & Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 18
Kudos: 632
Collections: Fics That Should Be Adored and Loved, Identity Crisis, Reincarnation and Transmigration





	Twice, a Brother

**Author's Note:**

> I read too much fanfiction and wanted to get this out because I couldn't get the idea out of my head.
> 
> Also, this is not beta-ed and English isn't my first language, all mistakes are my own. I've also not read both the anime and manga for both Naruto and BNHA in their entirety. Beware?

Itachi dies with Sasuke’s blurry face being the last thing he sees, and comes back to life with blue fire surrounding him. There are raised voices in the background—screams of fear and enraged shouts muffled by the roaring of flames and his first thought is that he has arrived in Naraka. His second is that he doesn’t have enough chakra ( _strange, why are his reserves such a pittance?_ ), but he doesn’t need more than a thimble’s worth to enhance his hearing.

“TOUYA-NII! TOUYA-NII!” 

( _A young boy shouting an unknown name, not Sasuke and not Itachi._ )

“It’s not working!” 

( _A woman screaming, but haha-ue would never lose her composure like this._ )

Confused, Itachi withdraws the chakra from his ears and focuses on his eyes. The darkness in his vision clears and it’s infinitely better than the one he had during his final moments ( _but, that cannot be. A man with poor visions remains a man with poor vision unless something has been done to rectify it_ ). Though, it’s not of the same clarity as the Mangekyou Sharingan prior to its deterioration, gave him. Instead, it’s akin to regular, unaffected vision. The kind he hasn’t had since his three tomoes evolved.

A large chunk flies towards Itachi but the moment it touches the blue flames, it erupts into hisses and distingerates into nothing. _Ice_ , he notes, and then, re-diverts his attention to the people beyond. There is a woman with light hair, desperately hurling blocks after blocks of ice at the fire in what is clearly an attempt to put it out, and two children doing the same as who Itachi assumes is their mother.

“Please! Please, save our son!” she pauses to whirl around and beg the man behind her but he doesn’t move, watches almost indifferently at the scene before him.

“Touya-nii!!” The little girl is looking directly at Itachi “You need to stop, Touya-nii!” 

At once, a pain both familiar and not hits Itachi, ( _he has never felt such physical pain before, neversowhy_ —) and he soon understands that the blue flames are hurting him. That these people are trying to save him. That he is somehow ‘Touya’ to them.

( _His chakra is a stream becoming smaller, shrivelling up and if he loses more, he will be left with nothing and that will be another death for him—but why is this so? Isn’t this Naraka? Has he not died for Sasuke already? HashenotdiedforSasuke_

The world fades to black.

  
  


Itachi comes to the steady mechanical beeping coming from his right and notes four presences on his left, the breathing patterns denoting that they are asleep. He keeps his body lax and continues to breathe as though he is resting, and under this facade, he carefully kneads his chakra—slow, and as unassuming as a butterfly fluttering by—before releasing it, gradually expanding his range until he reaches his limit. He recognizes the undeveloped chakra networks of civilians, the smaller ones of squirrels, birds and insects. He doesn’t recognize the chakra signatures, though. There are no distinct crackling flames as commonly found in the Land of Fire, no whistling breezes or trickling waters. Itachi looks for low-rumbling thunder and even pebbles rolling off of each other, but there are none.

There are none and Itachi can feel alarm and panic at the back of his mind, ready to overwhelm but he is faster. The walls go up and the mask he has carefully cultivated since he was old enough to better understand the world comes down.

Slowly, he opens his eyes and blinks the edges of sleep away. There is a white ceiling above him and he can see the lines and lights. His vision is still clear and unblurred without the assistance of chakra. He turns his head and meets four slumbering forms—the woman with light hair ( _white_ ), the boy ( _white_ ) and his sister ( _white with tufts of red_ ), and another younger boy ( _a perfect split between white and red_ ) who wasn’t there before.

Itachi sits up, careful to not make a sound or aggravate his wounds but then, the bed creaks and he freezes the same time a pair of eyes snap open, revealing dovetail grey and turquoise irises.

They remain frozen for several seconds before the little boy carefully detangles himself from the limbs of his family and closes the distance between them. He stares uncertainly at Itachi, waiting until the latter nods and then, slowly places a small palm on Itachi’s arm, right above where the bandages end at his elbow.

“Nii-san, okay?”

( _Sasuke’s face_ — _young, from the age of four when Itachi is his idol and his ideal, the brother he adores just as much as he is adored_ — _overlaps with this boy’s and there is concern in both their gazes._ )

Suddenly, Itachi’s throat is too dry and the temptation to let his mask slip is there, waiting behind the walls like a patient killer. His answer almost comes too late because his otouto has grown hesitant again, about to pull away but Itachi doesn’t let him. He grasps the little palm in his own and murmurs a barely audible ‘ _yes_ ’, all while noting the differences between their hands.

  
  


Being Todoroki Touya is entirely different from being Uchiha Itachi. 

Here, he’s not someone standing in between the village and the clan—neither bridge nor fire, no warring conflict from being forced to choose a side. This homeland has a legion of heroes to protect it, and war between countries isn’t something that looms over their heads every day. The casualty rate of heroes is also much lower than a shinobi’s, and thus, considering all this, this homeland has a peace that his first never had.

Moreover, despite being reborn ( _is this a rebirth, really? Or, a relocation of souls?_ ) as the first son in a family that can be deemed as noble, there is no pressure to become better than the best. No ancestry or reputation for him to uphold. Instead, the one who bears the burden of their family is his youngest brother.

 ~~_Sasuke_ ~~ Shouto.

If Itachi were really Touya, then maybe he would not be contemplating patricide right at this moment. Touya wouldn’t have the knowledge or the ability to control chakra, much less the skills a shinobi needs to survive. He wouldn’t have been able to completely hide his presence as he watches their sire beat his youngest brother under the guise of training. 

Here, a mistake is not a lesson the way his first parents, his teachers, his seniors and even his juniors have taught him. There are no explanations or demonstrations on how one should rectify what they have done wrong. No expressions, even subtle ones, that are not born from selfish greed and pride.

( _Regret lines chichi-ue’s face as he gather’s Itachi into an embrace. The silence is jarring, especially since the world was filled with overwhelming violence just seconds prior, but he can feel his father’s unspoken apology in his hold and so, he cries._ )

Here, a mistake is a weakness that Enji is beating out of Shouto. A mistake is Enji berating Shouto, telling him that he would never be better than the #1 Hero, that he would bring shame to the family should it persist. That he does not deserve to be known as the son of the #2 Hero and that he is undeserving of the quirk he has been born with.

Itachi’s chakra curls tightly within him as he watches his youngest otouto’s exhaustion make itself known. Watches Shouto’s misstep in desperation to avoid another wreath of fire heading towards him and the ensuing tumble onto the floor. Their father takes this opportunity to grab Shouto by the back of his collar and gives him a rough shake as though he’s a misbehaving dog and Itachi feels an anger he has not felt in a long time.

( _Itachi watches as Sasuke trains behind their home, unaware of the older Uchiha’s presence, and in that moment, he wishes his brother isn’t trying to follow his footsteps. Wishes for a world without violence and destruction. A world where children can just be children for a little while longer.)_

He draws a silent breath and steps away from the scene. It would not do to interrupt them, loathe as he is to admit it. A direct confrontation would make things worse but if he were to get stronger—if he were to rise and become the best, then he could ensure that something like this would never happen again. Enji would instead direct his focus on Itachi because a man like him would never turn down the opportunity to hide an achievement and thus, Shouto would live a freer life.

 _(For otouto._ )

He enters the garden, blue fire bursting to life at his palms.

**Author's Note:**

> What Itachi doesn't know is that Touya thought the same as him and that prior to Itachi waking up, Touya had gone to the garden to train with his quirk (as Itachi does in the end). Unfortunately, Touya's only experience of training is the one he had with his father (same as Shouto's; no proper structure, only knowing what is wrong and right based on their father's beliefs) and that stopped long before Shouto was born as Enji had deemed Touya unimportant and adequate enough to not accidentally endanger others with his quirk. Touya had drawn upon what he knew in attempt to train by himself and that backfired greatly, thus the beginning of this story.


End file.
